


Got Your Back

by ireneadlers



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: F/M, I have no idea what to tag this as, it's kinda pre-relationship really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 08:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3374408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ireneadlers/pseuds/ireneadlers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To anyone else, the situation may have seemed completely hopeless, but Peggy Carter wasn't anyone else.</p>
<p>This was written for a drawing by anniegotyourgun on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Got Your Back

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Got Your Back](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/98768) by anniegotyourgun. 



> Yes, I know, I should be working on my work in progress, but I was hitting a minor road block and thought, what the hell, might as well go with this idea.
> 
> I kinda struggled with this one, too, I'm not gonna lie, but just go ahead and tell me what you think after reading it haha.

“Any more bright ideas, sweetheart?”

“You wouldn’t believe it,  _darling_ , but it’s quite difficult to think over all this gunfire.”

Peggy sighed inwardly, her eyes frantically scanning the hallway Jack and she had somehow ended up in, back to back, with little chances to find their way out of the situation unscathed. It was largely due to her stupidity that they had even ended up in this situation. They were currently being closed in on from two sides, there were no windows they could use, and no doors. To anyone else, the situation may have seemed completely hopeless, but Peggy Carter wasn’t anyone else.

One elementary mistake that every mediocre soldier tended to make in combat is that they never looked up, they focused solely on the ground level. If they could find a way to get up on a ledge, above the heads of their pursuers, they would at the very least have the element of surprise on their side. Ideally, they would be able to find their way out. From what Peggy could tell in the dim light, it didn’t seem impossible.

The SSR were trying to make an arrest on some Nazis that had tried to hide from being prosecuted as war criminals. Granted, they should have gone for Latin America instead of the United States – which accounted for their intelligence – but they were dangerous nevertheless, and had managed to surprise the SSR-team. They had run straight into what Peggy now regarded as an obvious trap. She mentally kicked herself for not noticing how seemingly easy the job had suddenly been, especially since she was the unofficial leader of this operation, but then quickly returned to the task at hand. Luckily, as they were in a factory that produced car parts, there were plenty of pipes above them, with little maintenance walkways next to them. They didn’t look too sturdy – placing two people on top of them might be risky – but they sure as hell were better than certain death.

Not wanting to alert the nearing footsteps to their presence, she rammed her elbow into Jack’s side. Thankfully, he didn’t start cursing like a sailor, but rather hissed a confused “ow” quietly and turned to face her.

“What the fuck? You might like it rough, Marge, but you do realize hurting me won’t help with the problem at hand, right?” he whispered, his frantic eyes betraying the ease he was trying to convey with his comment.

Ignoring him, Peggy just pointed above her, and his eyes lit up in understanding.

“How do you propose we get up there, though? I could push you up, but I highly doubt either of us would manage to pull the other up – no offence to your weight, though” he added hastily, as if insulting her was their biggest problem in the given situation. Peggy just rolled her eyes.

“I can give you a leg-up –“she started, but Jack interrupted her.

“Are you insane? I can’t leave you to fend for yourself!” he protested, looking genuinely worried.

“Oh, don’t be a baby, Agent Thompson. We both know I can defend myself plenty”, she retorted. “As I was saying, I’ll give you a leg-up“, she ignored the disapproving look from Thompson as best as her abilities allowed, “and after I attract them here and take out, I don’t know, maybe two or three, you can either shoot from up there or jump down. That way they’ll be surprised and won’t know how to act, which will give us plenty of time to knock all of them unconscious.”

“And why exactly can’t we just reverse the roles?” Jack voiced his opinion. “It’d be my fault if something happened to you just because I was hiding like a coward!”

“Thompson, while I appreciate your concern, need I remind you what happened last time you were in combat? I don’t mean to use the episode in Russia against you in any way, but if you’re up there and freeze again, they at least won’t be able to kill you.”

“Peggy…” he whispered, sounding defenseless. Peggy knew she was right, but the hurt in his eyes made her heart clench. Jack was fiercely loyal and his purpose in life was protecting his friends or a cause he believed in, so the fact that made it sound like she didn’t believe him to be capable of it was as if she’d just openly insulted him. But Peggy had always been a firm believer in doing what had to be done, so she raised her eyebrows, hoping her eyes were sending the right message, and Jack nodded in silent agreement.

She was getting ready to push him up when he softly spoke again: “And what if I could pull you up after all?”

“If you are truly capable of that, I’d be really impressed. And I certainly won’t mind not being directly in harm’s way”, Peggy answered, shrugging. “But first we’ve got to get you up there either way.”

The maintenance walkways weren’t up very high, and close enough to the walls to leave enough space for a person to comfortably fit through, while making it possible for Peggy to lean against the wall in support when holding Jack up. She was strong due to her hours upon hours of army training, but holding up a six-foot male was not a piece of cake nevertheless, she had to admit. Additionally, Jack would have to turn over a little awkwardly once he was up in order to pull himself up, making it harder yet. After taking his foot in her hand, she groaned slightly hoisting him up, but managed to push him up high enough for him to hold onto the metal walkway. Placing his other foot against the wall in support, he did a pull-up and pushed himself over the edge.

“You alright?” asked Peggy.

“Yeah. Let’s see if I can grab your hand”, he answered, lying down on his stomach. He hooked his feet around the walkway so he wouldn’t fall off, and extended both his arms. At the same time, he heard the noises of battle nearing. Peggy desperately tried to reach for his hand, but couldn’t make it by an inch.

“Jump”, hissed Jack, glancing at the end of the hallway to check for their nearing opponents. He willed every muscle in his body to be ready. Peggy jumped with all her might, and he grabbed onto her wrists hard, his muscles tensing and pulling her up far enough so she could use her feet, as well. After a little bit of a struggle, she finally sat close to him, both of them breathing hard.

When he noticed her wincing as she looked at her wrists, he took them in his hands and looked at her apologetically.

“Shit, Carter, I didn’t mean to grab you so hard… What if it bruises?” he looked at her worriedly, gently stroking the reddened skin.

“Are you being serious right now?” she asked, incredulously, freeing her hands so she could emphasize the sheer stupidity of that statement. “You just pulled a grown woman up on a walkway and you’re worried about leaving  _bruises_?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but shut it again when a few men with guns entered the hallway, evidently also in search of an exit.  

They looked at each other warily, trying to decide what to do. If they jumped down and fought, it might end badly for them, as it was two barely armed agents against five armed men. Waiting it out on the walkway might not be the brave option, but it probably was the smart one in this context. Peggy assessed their surroundings once more. The walkways did seem to lead somewhere, but the risk of running into yet another trap was too big.

“Alright, I propose we fight. They’re only five, we can certainly take them out”, whispered Peggy into his ear, just to be safe. “However, I’ll drop down first to attract their attention, and once I’m surrounded, you’ll attack from the outside. That way they won’t be seeing you come.”

“Fine, but I still don’t like the thought of you going down there first”, he said, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair. “Shit, Carter, I know you’re damn good at what you do but-“

“Agent Jack Thompson, will you shut your mouth already or do I need to knock  _you_  unconscious?” she threatened quietly, and by the way she said, Jack knew she wasn’t joking in the least. “I trust you! And now shush or we won’t be needing to discuss strategies because we’ll be dead!”

He opened his mouth – whether to agree or to protest, he wasn’t sure yet – when he noticed that she’d scooted closer to the edge, presumably getting ready to jump. With a curt nod in his direction, she dropped down to the floor, landing on both feet hard.

“Alright, boys, let’s play!” she yelled, her stance cocky and betraying not an ounce of self-consciousness. Jack couldn’t help but admire her; he wasn’t exactly a rookie himself, but doing something so obviously stupid for the sake of a trap was a whole other thing that he wasn’t so sure he’d be capable of pulling off.

The Nazis, however, were stupid enough to run straight into it, just as they’d expected.

_Of course they would believe that everything is handed to them on a silver platter._ Jack couldn’t help but find the situation at least a little bit funny.

Not wasting time with redundant talk, the Nazis started attacking Peggy from all sides at once. Before any of them had realized how truly dangerous she was, she’d swept out the feet from one – causing him to crash into the floor hard – and placed a forceful punch right on another man’s jaw. As the other three were coming at her from all sides, Jack took a chance and maneuvered so he was hanging down from the walkway. Swinging back and forth, he managed to knock another out with a hard kick in the back of the head before he let himself crash down to the floor. He grunted, not expecting such a merciless landing after Peggy’s seemingly effortless drop, but regained composure at once, and flipped another surprised German soldier over onto his back. Peggy took it upon herself to beat him into unconsciousness. With only one opponent remaining, they silently agreed that cuffing him was enough. Peggy detained him while Jack placed the handcuffs on him, telling him he was arrested.

The fight was over in the blink of an eye, yet it had felt timeless – Jack couldn’t have pinpointed how much time had passed since Peggy first jumped if his life depended on it. It could have been seconds or hours for all he knew. He was breathing hard, adrenaline coursing through his veins, and he knew that nothing would ever come close to the way a good fight felt.

“Good job, Carter. What do you think,  _sweetheart_ , just another day at the office?” he teased, knowing full well that the pet name would have her blood boiling instantaneously. But that was part of the fun, after all. He never expected her to go along with it – twice – so it must have been his lucky day.

“Oh, you know,  _dear_ , just an average day of work, don’t you reckon?” she visibly had to fight a smile saying it, which in turn made Jack stupidly happy. She continued on a more serious note: “Thank you, Jack. For letting me take the lead. I truly appreciate your trust.”

He was very obviously unsure how to proceed; had it been another of his fellow agents like Yauch or Sousa or even Dooley, he would have done something manly like patted her on the back, but he was held back by an irrational fear of accidentally breaking her – like one pat on the back would do anything to Peggy Carter. Instead, he opted for a handshake and a slightly stiff smile.

“Anything for you,  _honey_ ”, he answered, wanting to disappear from the earth’s face forever and ever because he was acting like he’d never had a serious conversation longer than four words with a woman. But he figured he’d get a chance to prove to her that he was more than a babbling idiot soon enough. In the meantime, the only remaining strategy was to postpone being suave and abort this mission at once.

“Alright, Carter, let’s take these bad boys to the station.”


End file.
